


Nothing to Fix

by meridian_rose (meridianrose)



Category: Midnight Texas (TV)
Genre: Asexual Character, Asexuality, Gen, Nightmares, Platonic Bed Sharing, Sharing a Bed, it's usually best to listen to Olivia, mentions lem x olivia, mentions manfred x creek, mentions of Olivia's troubled past, mentions of past child sexual abuse, supportive Olivia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-21 01:36:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11933589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridianrose/pseuds/meridian_rose
Summary: Manfred and Olivia end up in the same hotel room, which has only one bed. Olivia thinks they can safely share and Manfred finds himself confessing something about himself.





	Nothing to Fix

"Darling, there you are." Olivia slipped her arm around Manfred's and squeezed, hard.

Manfred glanced at her and did the only thing he could do, which was nod and smile. Around them the hotel lobby continued to bustle with annoyed guests, while the police officer in front of them, barring the exit, lifted an eyebrow.

"I went to check out the pool," Olivia said. "And when I came back I saw the commotion. It's horrible. Just horrible."

In her floral sun-dress, straw hat, and large sunglasses, Olivia already looked different to her usual self. The accent and phrasing were however what was really disturbing Manfred. She was in character and Manfred knew he had to play along.

"I know," Manfred said. "Horrible."

Olivia steered him towards the elevators. "Did you get a room yet?"

"No." He should have booked ahead but hadn't.

"Then you'll stay with me. I've got a room booked under an alias. In public, call me Greta Jones. You can be my fiancée, Johnny Carstairs. Greta has a significant backstory."

Once in the elevator, thankfully alone, Manfred asked, "Did you kill that man?"

"No. You?"

Manfred was shocked. "No!"

"Trouble follows you around," Olivia said, and Manfred didn't argue.

"Maybe it's not murder." Manfred was not convinced even as he voiced the suggestion. He wondered if he'd have to try and get close enough to the deceased to see what had happened and help solve the crime before he or Olivia got mixed up in a homicide investigation.

"Lot of cops around," Olivia said. If she was worried, it didn't show. Manfred was worried enough for them both, yet he was innocent and that ought to count for something.

"I don't have anything to hide. I don't have to be Johnny Carruthers."

"Carstairs." Olivia shrugged. "I was looking out for you. I had no idea how involved you might be. I've done this a million times. Just let me handle it."

Manfred gave in. Better at Olivia's side than in her way. It would be foolish to refuse help from someone as experienced as she was.

When Olivia let him into her room, Manfred stared at the double bed and glanced around for a sofa but found only one wooden chair near a desk.

"I'll sleep on the floor," Manfred offered.

Olivia gave him a hard look. "No-one's sleeping on the floor," she said. "Unless you feel you can't keep your hands to yourself."

Manfred thought about what would happen to anyone who touched Olivia without permission and swallowed hard. He also tried, but failed, not to be offended by the insinuation. Olivia didn't know him.

They ordered room service, neither of them wanting to risk the restaurant. Olivia perched on the bed, Manfred took the chair, and they shared the pizza and sipped at the beer in companionable silence.

"Are you here on a job?" Manfred asked finally.

"No. Recon," Olivia said. "This place is now a bust."

He nodded. "Same. I was checking out a few places to host psychic readings. This is cheaper than my clients prefer but I thought it might get me a few more people through the door, as it were. Plus a lower deposit if something goes wrong. Since I moved to Midnight my powers seem stronger and honestly I'm a little concerned that more than a broken mirror or window might occur."

Olivia took a swallow of beer. "You need to learn to control your gift?"

"Gift," Manfred scoffed. "I guess so. I wish Xylda was still alive. I can talk to her but she's sometimes so vague. I can't hold her hand and try to focus with her as my anchor, you know? Of course you don't know. God."

He took a swig from his own bottle, mostly to keep himself quiet.

They took turns to use the bathroom. Manfred's overnight bag had a long t-shirt and clean boxers for him to sleep in. Olivia's bright pink suitcase, part of Greta's wardrobe, contained a white nightgown. Manfred, watching Olivia wrangle her hair into a neat bun, found it charming and reminiscent of the cover of some historical-but-sexy novel, but knew that expressing either of these things aloud would cause him to come to harm.

He lay on his side, facing away from Olivia, she doing the same and looking towards the windows. He didn't expect to sleep but he drifted off.

The next he knew, Olivia was shaking him and calling his name. Manfred sat up, gasping for breath. Olivia switched on her bedside lamp.

"Hey, you're okay. Breathe."

Manfred was trying. It took a moment for him to catch his breath. "Sorry," he gasped finally.

"We all have nightmares sometimes," Olivia offered.

He brushed back his hair from his face, nodded.

"They're worse since I moved to Midnight," he said at last, wondering if he should get out of bed and grab his pills.

Olivia took this in her stride. "Lem says there's something different," she said. "Something worrying that he can't quite place. You're psychic, he's a vampire, you both sense things I can't."

Manfred lay back down, staring at the ceiling. "I guess so."

Olivia turned off the lamp and lay on her side, facing him. "Whatever happens, we face it together. That's the point of Midnight."

It was touching. "I' m not used to having people I can rely on."

"I know the feeling. But it's worth learning to trust," Olivia told him. "You know that, or why else would you stay?"

"Creek?" That it came out as a question made it obvious it was a lie.

"If I didn't know better I'd say you were scamming her," Olivia said. "Because it's so fast and so – I hate to use the word shallow, but…I think she likes you. I think you like her. But I don't think she's a major reason for you to put down roots. You want people to think that and maybe you want to believe it yourself, but I'm not buying it."

Manfred gave a deep sigh. "You're right. It's not as serious as I pretend, but not for lack of trying. I want to want her, you know? To have something normal in my life."

"What do you mean? You're gay? Bi? Pan?"

Olivia had jumped to the obvious conclusion, though her breezy inclusion of other sexualities made the next part a little easier.

Manfred held up his hand, though how much she could see in the dark was questionable. "I wear a lot of black jewellery."

"I've noticed. You wear more jewellery than me." Her tone was teasing rather than mocking so Manfred gave a small smile.

"But this ring, here. Black on the middle finger of the right hand. Hardly anyone who isn't asexual knows it, but that's become the signifier for asexuality. Not everyone on the spectrum wears a ring, and plenty of people like black jewellery, but I chose this ring and the placement deliberately."

Olivia didn't say anything.

"I don't experience sexual attraction," Manfred went on, because even those who knew words for describing minority sexualities such as pansexual might struggle with the notion of asexuality. "There's things like gray-ace, for low libidio, and demisexual, for if you only experience attraction after an emotional bond. I keep hoping for that, that one day I'll like someone enough to feel what I'm supposed to."

"Supposed to?"

"That I'll want to have sex with someone. Lose my goddamn virginity." Manfred shook his head. This was a more emotional subject than he'd expected it to be. Xylda had told him he just needed to find the right one, and everyone he met seemed to take sex as an inevitable part of a relationship. Being outside of that dynamic was another way Manfred was different. It made him flirt too much, throw himself into romantic liaisons too quickly, to desperately try and be normal, or at least look normal.

Olivia took this in. "What about Violet?"

"I told her I wanted to wait for our wedding night."

"Creek?"

Manfred gave a hoarse laugh. "We talk, we eat, we drink. We kiss, we cuddle, we spoon in bed, we shower together. I like all those things. But we haven't had sex."

Olivia was staring at him. "I see."

"She thinks we have. She thinks I'm pretty good in bed." Manfred closed his eyes. "I had the ring enchanted. It's a glamour. I touch her a certain way with the ring to her skin, say the words, and she thinks we've had sex."

Olivia was plainly disturbed by this but she didn't berate him immediately as he expected when he opened his eyes and saw her expression.

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why use a spell?"

"To be normal," Manfred said again. "So I have a chance at a relationship. You think she'll stick around for cuddling when she can find someone to fuck?"

Olivia sat up and folded her arms. "I want to you listen to me," she said and woe betide him if he didn't. "Because this isn't something I tell most people. But I'm going to tell you."

Manfred listened silently as Olivia told him about her stepmother. The thought of a young Olivia, of any girl, being forced to have sex turned his stomach.

"People think sex is amazing and necessary and unicorns and rainbows," Olivia said. "But I know that sex is brutal and humiliating and violating. So when I choose to have sex, it's knowing those negatives and making a conscious decision to put them aside for a moment. It can be pleasurable and wonderful, but it's never going to be unicorns for me because there's no innocence left. Sex for me is always a deliberate choice and not one I make as often as people might think I do."

Olivia was silent for a long moment. Manfred closed his eyes briefly. "I'm sorry." Inadequate.

"I'm not telling you to get your sympathy. I don't ever want to see pity on your face or I'll smack it right off."

"Okay." Manfred was glad it was dark.

"What Lem and I have is special," Olivia said. "We have a lot of ways we share intimacy. Sex is not the most important. It barely makes the top five."

Manfred frowned. "Oh." Lem was a vampire which probably made for some interesting intimacies a human was not capable of, but Olivia's point stood.

"If you don't want to have sex with Creek then you shouldn't," Olivia said. "But it's not right to lie to her. One of the major forms of intimacy is honesty. If you can't trust your partner, who can you?"

Manfred sighed, knowing she was right. He'd never stayed anywhere long enough, to get in so deep, as he'd stayed in Midnight, getting to know Creek.

"I'll tell her," Manfred said and Olivia lay back, facing away from him, and they both got some sleep.

*

In the morning Manfred was awoken by a fully dressed Olivia packing her things.

"The dead guy was a local politician, possibly screwing someone he shouldn’t have been, hence the police presence at this mediocre hotel," she said briskly. "But it was natural causes, confirmed late last night, so there is no further investigation. We can go. Get dressed, we'll grab breakfast on the road."

"We?"

"I came by train and a cab," Olivia said. "But seeing as you're here, we might as well travel back together."

As always it was better not to question Olivia so Manfred began to dress with haste.

*

On the way home, Olivia said, "You should talk to Fiji about your nightmares. She's got a few things that might help."

"I will."

"And those other things we talked about. One, don't talk about my past to anyone."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

"Two," Olivia said, as if he hadn't spoken, "you might want to talk to Fiji about your sexuality."

Manfred kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead, knuckles tightening on the wheel. "She can fix that too?"

Olivia shook her head. "No," she said, and the unaccustomed softness in her tone made him glance at her. "There's nothing to fix. But you'll find her a sympathetic ear. Trust me."

Manfred relaxed. "I'll think about it."

He'd broached the subject with Olivia and it had gone far better than expected. Fiji would be easier to tell, and if he could get through that, maybe he could find the courage to be upfront with Creek.

"Third, I'm glad you're a virgin. That means you've never felt pressured into sex you didn't want. That's nothing to be ashamed of."

Manfred gave a small smile.

"Breakfast," Olivia said, pointing out a sign advertising a café a few miles away. "You hungry?"

"Starving," Manfred agreed, and it was true.

It hadn't been such a bad weekend after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this post http://naw-sexual.tumblr.com/post/163390133288/he-has-an-ace-ring-everyone-stay-calm which points out Manfred is wearing an asexual ring
> 
> This post gives a bit of background about asexual rings  
> https://ace-asks.tumblr.com/post/156025592591/hey-i-hope-youre-having-a-lovely-daynight-i?is_related_post=1
> 
> [Tumblr promo post](https://meridianrosewrites.tumblr.com/post/164721259392/nothing-to-fix-meridianrose-meridianrose) for this fic


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